Spaniard brings to an end a hugely disappointing spell at Chelsea following
his £50m move from Liverpool in January 2011

Fernando Torres has agreed a two-year deal to join AC Milan and finally end one of the most disastrous moves in Premier League history.

The Spanish striker has endured an unhappy three-and-a-half-years at Stamford Bridge after securing a £50 million move from Chelsea in Jan 2011.

That fee, then a British record, was only beaten this week by the £59.7 million that Manchester United have invested in Angel Di Maria.

However despite the scale of the fee and despite having two years left on his current deal it appears Chelsea are letting Torres go for free.

Chelsea last night confirmed the move describing it as a "two-year loan deal" which, given he has only two years left on his contract effectively means he is leaving them for good unless things drastically change.

At the same time the club have, it is understood, not agreed to pay Torres a severance package. It had been thought the 30-year-old was holding out for a payment on the £175,000-a-week contract he has with Chelsea but because his move to Milan is for two seasons, no pay-off has been forthcoming.

Torres, who scored 45 goals in 172 games for Chelsea, won both the Champions League and Europa League at the club but struggled throughout his three-year stay and has dropped even further down the pecking order following the summer signings of Diego Costa and Didier Drogba.

Jose Mourinho had insisted that Torres needed to inform the club that he wanted to go and that the deal was concluded swiftly so that he could find a replacement.